Refuge Coffee Co. — Follow-Up Sequence

Target: Refuge Coffee Co. — mission-driven coffeehouse in Clarkston, GA; employs and job-trains refugees as its core operating model

Contact: Kitti Murray (Founder & CEO)

Channel(s): Email info@refugecoffeeco.com (primary — general inbox; address Kitti by name in the body and keep "for Kitti" in the subject so it routes). Instagram (alternate, handle unverified — see flags) or the website contact form at refugecoffeeco.com.

Source first-touch: registry/leads/drafts/refuge-coffee-co-outreach.md

Source row: targets.md D2 (Web-sourced candidates 2026-05-26)

Generated: 2026-09-20 (night-shift)

Assumes: no reply to the first touch (free short piece, they pick the story, they own it)

Register: human-outcome storytelling for a social enterprise whose product is refugee job training — donor/funder communication and workforce/placement-partner communication, not a hard sell

Cadence

|-------|--------|---------|------------------|

| 2 | D+12 | Email | Free one-page "Day One to Done" phone-capture checklist (Appendix A) |

| 3 | D+20 | Email | Hiring/placement-partner hook: a 60-second "day one to done" arc an employer can feel before the interview |

| 4 | D+28 | Email | Donor/end-of-year + impact-report hook: one graduate beats the count |

| 5 | D+36 | Email (or alternate) | Door-open close, no ask |

Flags — read before sending

1. Channel. Email info@refugecoffeeco.com is a general inbox — address Kitti by name in the body and keep "for Kitti" in the subject. Instagram is the alternate, but the handle was NOT verified this session (neither the first-touch draft nor the D2 row lists one) — confirm the org's actual handle before using it. One channel per touch; do not triple-send the same touch across email, IG, and the website form.

2. Verify Kitti Murray is still Founder & CEO before Touch 1. Roles rotate. If she's moved on, find the current ED or development lead and swap the greeting.

3. Facts confined to the first-touch draft + D2 row. Founded 2015; Clarkston (60+ languages in one square mile); 12–18 months of paid on-the-job training (barista skills, professional norms, English support, career planning) with step-up employment as the goal; Ahmed Alzoukani (Syrian refugee, arrived 2015, trained ~5 years up to GM, now runs Mint Coffeehouse in Tucker); 10-year mark May 2025; Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown; Kitti Murray Founder & CEO. Do not invent trainee names, program counts, graduation dates, awards, grants, donor numbers, or quotes.

4. Ahmed/Mint Coffeehouse is the proof anchor. He's the real, named human outcome that makes the launchpad thesis true. Mint opened Aug 2024 — do not frame it as fresh news.

5. GCV real work held soft. Astronomia is referenced only as "documenting a speaker series" and Detroit Action as "filming people organizing in their own neighborhoods" — both factual prior work, not results claims. Do not upgrade either to a case study or a metric. Do not imply Refuge Coffee is a client or GCV client anywhere. Westside Future Fund and Grove Park Foundation are cold prospects, not clients — do not name them as prior work here.

6. Seasonal hook is Q4 end-of-year giving + impact-report season. Touch 4 names no specific report, date, or deadline — frame it as "as it comes around."

7. Stop the moment they reply. This is a conversation, not a drip. Any response restarts as a real thread and the remaining touches get dropped.

Touch 1 — The story after the apron comes off (D+5)

Subject: for Kitti — the story after the apron comes off

Kitti —

A Refuge graduate running his own shop in Tucker — Ahmed Alzoukani at Mint Coffeehouse — is the outcome no tagline can hold. A year or more of paid training in Clarkston, and then the launchpad does exactly what it was built to do.

That's the story a menu page or a donation page can't show: someone who walked in, trained, and walked out into their own business. "Refuge isn't a charity coffee job" is a sentence until you watch it happen.

If there's one trainee's arc you'd point a camera at first — the first day, or the day they graduate into a step-up job — that's where I'd start.

~110 words. Leads with the through-line and the named real outcome (Ahmed), not a re-offer of the free piece. "You pick it" carries forward from the first touch. The "launchpad, not a charity coffee job" frame is the workforce register, distinct from the Ke'nekt "counter is the co-op," CCI "room not the stage," and Cabbagetown "park full of neighbors" hooks.

Touch 1 — alternate channel (Instagram DM or website contact form), don't double-send

Hey — Ghost Coast Video, the short-piece offer from before.

A Refuge graduate running his own shop in Tucker — Ahmed Alzoukani at Mint Coffeehouse — is the outcome no tagline can hold. A year or more of paid training in Clarkston, then the launchpad does what it's built to do. That's the story a menu page can't show. You pick what the camera points at first.

~55 words. Same hook, DM register. Use only if email goes unanswered and the inbox routing is unknown; pick one channel per touch. Instagram handle unverified — confirm it before sending there, or route through the website contact form at refugecoffeeco.com.

Touch 2 — Free asset: the capture checklist (D+12)

Subject: for Kitti — a checklist you could hand to a program lead

Kitti —

I put together a one-page checklist for turning a trainee's first day and their graduation into a 90-second story, shot on a phone. It's written so you could hand it to whoever runs the training floor or the development side.

It's below, the whole thing, no strings. If the "one arc at a time" rhythm reads like something that'd feed your year-end report and your hiring-partner conversations, that's the part I'd want to build with you.

— Brandyn
Ghost Coast Video · ghostcoast.video

~75 words. Delivers Appendix A. The "hand it to whoever runs the training floor or the development side" framing is aimed at a founder-CEO who has to make the case internally, not at a direct video buyer.

Touch 3 — Hiring / placement-partner hook (D+20)

Subject: for Kitti — what an employer can't read on a résumé

Kitti —

Placement is the point of the whole program, and the hard part of placing someone is convincing an employer what a year of training at Refuge actually produced. A résumé says "barista, 12 months." It doesn't show the person who can run a shift, talk to a customer, hold a job.

A 60-second piece on one graduate — from their first day to the job they stepped into — does that talking for them. The hiring partner sees it before they ever interview, and the graduate walks in as a known quantity.

If there's one graduate you'd want an employer to meet on camera, that's the one I'd start with.

~100 words. Workforce/placement register, tuned to "step-up employment as the goal" from the first-touch draft. Does not name a specific hiring partner or assert placement numbers — it stays on the mechanism (an employer needs to see what training produced).

Touch 4 — Donor / end-of-year hook (D+28)

Subject: for Kitti — one graduate beats the count

Kitti —

One timing note, then I'll get out of your way. Q4 is when the end-of-year letters and the impact report come around, and the hard thing is making "trainees trained, jobs landed" land as something a donor can feel.

The fix is one graduate. A 60-second piece that runs from someone's first day in Clarkston to the keys of their own shop in Tucker turns the count into a person. That's what a donor keeps giving to.

The work I've done closest to this — documenting a speaker series, filming people organizing in their own neighborhoods — the part that lands is always the person, not the summary of the program.

If the calendar's already locked, no problem. The program keeps either way.

~120 words. Donor/funder register, tuned to Q4 year-end giving and impact-report season without naming a specific report or deadline. The proof line holds Astronomia ("documenting a speaker series") and Detroit Action ("filming people organizing in their own neighborhoods") at factual prior work, not results claims. The "first day to the keys of a shop" arc is the concrete launchpad image, distinct from the sibling "one repaired home" and "one member business" anchors.

Touch 5 — Door-open close (D+36)

Subject: for Kitti — leaving the door open

Kitti —

I've sent a few notes over the last month and won't keep them coming if the timing's off. A founder's got enough on it.

The offer stands as it was. If Refuge ever wants its launchpad on camera, I'm around. And when I've got a finished piece from the event and community work I've been doing — something with a real person in it — I'll send it your way so you can judge it instead of taking my word.

— Brandyn
Ghost Coast Video · ghostcoast.video

~80 words. No ask, no recap, no guilt. Closes on the honest forward promise (a finished piece from the event/community work), which doubles as a reason to keep the thread — and stays off the Little Five Points series reference the sibling drafts use, so it reads as Refuge-specific.

Appendix A — "Day One to Done" — turning a trainee's arc into a 90-second donor or hiring story

The deliverable for Touch 2. Self-contained; paste into an email or drop into a PDF/Google Doc.

Day One to Done — turning a trainee's arc into a 90-second donor or hiring story

What it is. A short recipe for capturing one trainee's arc on a phone — the first day, a moment in the middle, the graduation or the placement — and turning it into a 90-second story a donor or an employer can feel.

Why it works. "Refuge isn't a charity coffee job" is a sentence until someone watches it happen. A website can list the program: paid training, barista skills, English support, career planning, step-up employment. It can't show the person the program actually changed. The trainee is the story.

The recipe.

1. Pick one trainee, one arc. Not the whole program.

2. Shoot three moments, not one: the first day on the floor, a moment in the middle (a skill, a shift, a conversation), and the graduation or the day they step into a job.

3. Ask one question and let them answer in their own words: "What changed for you here?"

4. Show the change, don't describe it. Hands on the machine, an apron going on, a first shift at the new job.

5. Keep it to one person, one arc, one change. That is the whole 90 seconds.

6. End on where they are now — standing in their own shop, or clocking into the job they earned.

What a donor gets.

A face behind the word "impact"
A reason to give again
A shareable piece that does the asking for Refuge

What a hiring partner gets.

A graduate they can see before the interview
A sense of what a year of training actually produced
A person to say yes to

What Refuge gets.

A year-end story ready for the letters and the next grant
A placement story that recruits the next hiring partner
A library of arcs the website can never hold

The rule of thumb. The trainee is the story. The coffee is just where it starts.

Notes for Brandyn

Appendix A is ready to deploy as a one-page PDF or Google Doc for Touch 2. The "Day One to Done" angle is what makes it workforce-specific rather than a generic nonprofit checklist, and it is distinct from the Ke'nekt "counter is the co-op," FCS "One Block, In Place," Historic Westside Gardens "vacant lot to 90 seconds," and Trees Atlanta planting-day guides.
Strongest touch if only one gets sent: Touch 1 (the launchpad thesis with Ahmed). Touch 4 (year-end) is the close second because it is tied to the Q4 giving/impact-report calendar, which is when a workforce social enterprise actually needs story assets.
Astronomia and Detroit Action stay soft. They appear once, in Touch 4, as "documenting a speaker series" and "filming people organizing in their own neighborhoods" — factual prior work, not results claims and not case studies. Refuge Coffee is never implied to be a client anywhere.
Downstream asks stay held until a real conversation, per the first-touch draft: paid trainee/graduate series, year-end report production, grant video, placement-partner recruiting. None of these appear as asks — only the free first piece and the door staying open.
No fabricated clients, metrics, program counts, dates, or testimonials anywhere. Only facts already in the first-touch draft and the D2 row are named.